The present invention relates to a liquid fuel combustion apparatus wherein a rotating shaft is rotated by a driving motor to raise a wick connected to the rotating shaft, whereby the wick is brought to its ignition and combustion position.
Apparatuses of this type have been conventionally known wherein depression of an ignition button causes a driving motor to be rotated for a predetermined time to rotate a rotating shaft, whereby a wick is brought to an ignition and combustion position which is its uppermost position, while, similarly, the driving motor mentioned above is reversed upon depression of an extinguishing button for extinguishing the fire to return the wick to its lowermost or extinguished position. In a liquid fuel combustion apparatus of such an automatic wick shift type, raising and lowering of the wick can be carried out with a one-touch operation. Therefore, such an apparatus is more effective in that it is much easier to operate than apparatuses wherein the wick is raised or lowered by rotating a knob each time this is required.
However, the apparatuses of this type require the motor to be rotated in the forward and reverse directions. Additionally, high power is necessary to raise and lower the wick, so that the motor is expensive. Thus, such apparatuses have been defective because of their high cost. Furthermore, since the motor cannot be operated during a power failure or the like, it is entirely impossible to change the wick over from the combustion state to the extinguished state. This does not pose a serious problem in the case of ignition, but there have been problems in the case of extinguishment due to the possibility of dangerous accidents, because the motor cannot be driven when the power supply is stopped, even if, for example, an oscillation sensor employed for sensing earthquakes is triggered to control the motor drive. Therefore, apparatuses of this type are not practical at present, although they are easy to operate.